Done
by obaona
Summary: Padme's death, from her point of view. Vignette, complete.


Title: Done

Archive: Sure, just ask. I want to know if anyone actually wants it, see. ;) 

Rating: G. 

Summary: Padme death, from her POV. 

Feedback: I'm not going to make any pretense at dignity. I'm begging for it, people.

Done 

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The long grass tickled my palms as I walked along the prairie. As far as the eye could see there were golden hills, sparkling in the light of the sun. The long stalks waved gently in the soft breeze that caressed my face, and I breathed that perfect sweetness of my home in. It filled my lungs and held it for a long moment, treasuring the taste of Naboo one last time.

I was dying, after all. 

The doctors had been frantic, as had my security when I had shown them the small puncture wound caused by the pin left in my study. I had closed my eyes and imagined the scene in my mind – my Anakin laughing, his hand trailing the bare skin of my back as I went into my study to find some documents of dubious importance. I had looked back at him, and smiled, not caring at all that one of those hands that had touched my so gently was cold, mechanical. He had lost his hand, but he was still my Anakin, then. 

Lost in the memory, trying to lose myself, I traced the edge of my smooth, golden wood desk – everything in my study was organic, a contrast to the artificiality of the environment that I worked in – and I felt the slightest prick on my finger. It was just a slight sting, but I had opened my eyes anyway.

The pin was so small as to be nearly invisible. I raised my hand, and looked at my finger – at the slightest dot of blood. Then I looked down at my desk, ignoring everything else in the room – the pictures and documents, the things that made my study mine. On the edge of desk, a pin had been attached.

Mere minutes after I called my security, Captain Typho and his subordinates, they discover that I had been poisoned. I was quickly given injections meant to stop the poison, but all they did was slow it down. The doctors consulted one another and Captain Typho, with his one eye blazing and his words full of fury, told me he had no doubt of who had attempted to assassinate me. 

I had no doubt either. It was surely our self-proclaimed Emperor, Palpatine. Formerly such an advocate of peace and justice, he had revealed himself for what he was in his horrific actions against the Jedi Order – destroying their temple, ordering the capture of their members. It was too late to do anything – to fight – by then, though. He had power, influence, and wealth. 

And my Ani. 

My brave protector, my husband in secret. Palpatine ensnared him with lies, with the promise of power that he had so desperately craved after the death of his mother and his inability to stop it. I did not know, then, how those words – his proclamation that he would be powerful enough to defeat death – would haunt us. All that held Anakin from the darkness now was me. Padme Amidala Skywalker. 

I love having his name next to mine. I love knowing that our love was expressed in that – in having the same name, a thing to bind us. I loved saying that name in the dark and silence of night, the only time I could because of the secrecy involved. 

My physician's face was serious and calm, his aged face sad, when he told me that he could not stop the poison and its effect, merely slow it. I had a few hours, at the most. I nodded, and bade him to go. To leave me. He protested, and I insisted. I would not deny reality, would not deny what was to come. My death was at hand.

I knew where I wanted to be when I died.

My entire family – not only those of flesh and blood, but also those of heart and soul – protested at my plan. They wanted to be with me, they wanted me to fight it with my last breath. I looked at them all, one by one. Meeting their eyes with my own, and begging them in that way to see what I could not express, only know. 

They let me go. My mother touched my cheek and kissed me, my father embraced me, and my sister and nieces told me goodbye. Captain Typho – so loyal to me, even after everything – insisted on bringing me where I wanted to go. I nodded my acquiescence, and we left. I cast one last gaze over my home, my family – still untouched by Palpatine's New Order. 

I wanted to die in the place where I had first known that I loved Anakin, and that was the gently rolling plains of the lake estate. I wanted to remember the happiness, the joy of that time. I wanted to give myself some peace in remembering that so long as my memory lived in Anakin, that moment lived, and could not be forgotten. We had played and laughed, and for that brief time I believe that nothing could have been more perfect or more beautiful. I had felt so happy as to feel as if I were not in my own skin. That day had been perfection. 

And so I was here again. I wore the gown that I had worn that day, years ago. It still fit, even after giving birth. I let my fingers trace the lace that covered the shimmersilk beneath, as beautiful as it had been then. It's yellow color blended with the gold of my surroundings, and I watched myself walk, feeling the skirt of it roll around my ankles. I let my hair fall unbound, different then it had been on that day, but the way that Anakin had liked it, curly and free. 

The feathery tips of the grass tickled my palms as I half knelt in the thigh-deep grass. I closed my eyes, remembering Anakin's touch. He had always touched me as if I were the most delicate beauty, precious to hold and feel. Never did I feel so important as I did in his arms.

I lay down carefully, on my back with my legs slightly pressed together, beginning to feel numbness spread in my hand, the hand that had been pricked. I had been warned of what the poison would do, how it would feel. It would soon be time. 

The grass felt stiff and unyielding against my head, and pricked my arms, which I had flung out to my sides – but I barely felt it, the poison quickly taking effect. I breathed deeply again, tasting the air's purity. The sky was so blue, so perfectly blue as I looked up at it. It deepened directly above, seemingly spanning into infinity. It reminded me of Anakin's eyes – fathomless and wonderful. I never tired of looking at either of them. I had imagined many times, in the earliest days of my pregnancy, looking into those eyes and seeing them light up with the knowledge he was going to be a father. 

I knew, now, that I would never see that look. It was never to be found, lost behind a soulless, dark mask and the title Lord of the Sith. But my children – our children – were safe. The twins – my beautiful Luke, so like what his father had been, and my Leia, truly my daughter with those knowing brown eyes. 

The Jedi took them, and hid them – my Leia would live among pacifists and a world renowned for its peace, as the daughter of Bail Organa of Alderaan. Luke would live with Owen and Beru, Anakin's only family, with Obi-Wan constantly by his side – protecting my son with his life, if necessary. He had assured me of that when he took my son from my arms, his gray eyes soft and gentle, with steel borne of sorrow and determination. I knew Beru would make a good mother – we had talked, those years ago on Tatooine, and she had spoken of her love of children. Both of my children would have good homes, with those that loved them. 

I exhaled softly, and strangely did not feel the need to inhale. The sky was blue – so shockingly blue. In the corners of my eyes were the golden waves of grass, moving ever so slightly in the wind. My body felt heavy and limp. 

And then there was a flash of something else. A man, I think, dressed in all black, even his face covered by that blur of darkness. Overhead, a ship flying with the sign of Palpatine's New Order broke the beautiful blue of the sky. The blackness knelt by me, and I thought I heard my name. 

It no longer mattered. The sky was tilting, fading from my vision. I had borne Anakin's children, and given them a home. I had fought for my world, I had loved, and I had lived. 

I was done.

_The End._


End file.
